60 flee to Cebu for safety from Zamboanga fighting

CEBU CITY—Scared for their safety in Zamboanga City, 60 persons, half of them children, left their homes and traveled for 33 hours to reach Cebu City and seek refuge in a house of a relative.

“We were caught in the crossfire. We could not move anywhere because there was shooting everywhere,” said Marites Angeles Kajal.

Kajal decided to leave Zamboanga and stay with her daughter, Sara Mae Basilio, a resident of the city for eight years.

Kajal said her relatives went with her to Cebu for fear of their children’s safety, especially since bullets had penetrated some roofs and floors of houses in the family compound, which is located near a vast mangrove area.

All 60 persons, composed of 16 families belonging to the same clan, left Barangay (village) Talon-Talon, Zamboanga City, at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. The village is located between Barangays Santa Catalina and Mampang, where most of the members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were staying and fighting with government troops.

Kajal said their journey to Cebu was “perilous.”

They went to Dipolog City from Zamboanga City on board a family-owned Isuzu truck and Mitsubishi Montero sports utility vehicle (SUV). The trip took four hours and 30 minutes, she said.

From Dipolog, they took a roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessel to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, where they took another Ro-Ro vessel to Santander town at the southern tip of Cebu and more than 100 kilometers away from Cebu City.

On board the same Isuzu truck and Montero SUV they took from Zamboanga, the refugees traveled for four hours to Cebu City.

Basilio said her mother and other relatives arrived in her home on Tres de Abril Street in Barangay Labangon at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

But the arrival of the Kajal clan caused fear among Basilio’s neighbors, who thought they were rebels.

Basilio called up the nearest police station to inform them of her relatives’ arrival to avoid any miscommunication.

Punta Princesa barangay captain Jose Navarro told the Inquirer that there was nothing to fear from the group.

Navarro maintained they were evacuees and not rebels.

He also informed Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgar Labella of the group’s presence.

A medical team and the city’s social welfare office personnel went to Basilio’s residence on Thursday night to profile and check on the group, half of them children. The youngest was a 2-month-old baby boy.

Ester Concha, head of the Cebu City Department of Social Welfare and Services, said most of the children were traumatized with what happened in Zamboanga City.

“One of them told me they didn’t like their place because they were scared of the shooting,” Concha said. Both the adults and their children would have to undergo stress debriefing, she added.